


Golden Slumbers, Blue Magic

by sharpshootered



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, One Shot, celestial, sun and moon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25601233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharpshootered/pseuds/sharpshootered
Summary: “Tell me the story of how the sun loved the moon so much he died every night just to let her breathe.”for Zutara week 2020
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 48





	Golden Slumbers, Blue Magic

She awoke in darkness, the kind that swallows anything and everything it touches. She looked around at the nothingness. Silence enveloped her, dead and quiet. 

Did she have a body? She felt like she did, but saw only the void when she looked down. Her feet grazed nothing when she attempted to move. Her arms marked only the black around her. Where was she?

Suddenly, light radiated around her. She shut her eyes, temporarily and inexplicably blinded. A small gasp escaped her as her vision returned. 

-

When he awakened, there was only white. Everything around him shone in its piercing gleam. It was silent, too, at first. 

When he saw her, her eyes were shut tight and her hands partially shielded her face. She was wrapped in white, flowing fabric that folded off her body in waves. Her hair and skin were dark, but emitted a soft, ethereal glow. She was beautiful.

She finally met his gaze with a small sound of surprise. Her eyes were a deep, dazzling blue. Her eyes were the first blue he’s ever seen. 

-

He stared at her in a mix of bewilderment and awe. His hair was long and dark, pulled behind his head in a ponytail. He was wearing cascading black robes that rippled slightly in the stillness. His light skin was sparkling in a splendid brilliance. 

His eyes were a vivid, brilliant gold. She’s never seen anything like it.

They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, taking in the sight of another being. The void around them clashed between the light and the dark. They were surrounded by balls of glowing white, shining brightly as the blackness surrounded them. 

“Hello.” He spoke first, his voice light and raspy. This was the first sound she had ever heard. 

“Hello,” she answered. Her voice sounded strange to her, smoother and higher than his. 

“Who… Who are you?” She didn’t know how she knew these words, how she knew what they meant and what to say. 

He tore his eyes from hers and looked down at his body. He lifted his hands turning them over. “The Sun,” he replied, his eyes quite literally lighting up in realization. “Who are you?” His voice was soft.

“The Moon,” she answered immediately. Her answer startled her. She didn’t understand how she knew that, or what it meant. From his face, she could tell he was the same. 

“This… ” He started, his sleeves billowing as he gestured to the sprinkle of light and dark around them, “… is the universe, isn’t it?” 

“Yes.” She knew this, too. This was the world, this was reality. All around them, the light and dark that swirled in the void… this was everything. They were the first entities, the first conscious beings. Together, they were the beginning. 

-

The world formed soon after that. 

First, the ocean. This was her doing. She pulled from her gown and laid it out in the open. The white, rippling fabric soon formed into waves, crashing and churning in an endless sea. 

He looked into her eyes as they rolled with shades of blue, and suggested the water be that color. 

“To mark your creation,” he reasoned. 

“I don’t know what color they are though,” she replied. “I’ve never seen them.”

“I will do it, then,” he smiled. He raised his hand and began pulling out a string of light from her eyes, like a glittering rope. He wasn’t sure how he had learned this trick, but it did not bother him anymore. He had gotten used to knowing things without reason.

He balled up the string, now a beautiful cobalt blue, and tossed it above the white waves. It exploded, dripping its color into the sea and engulfing it in her color. 

She gazed at the crashing waves as they left white foam rippling in their wake. “It’s beautiful,” she smiled. Her face emitted a slightly brighter glow than normal as she looked at him, joy spilling from her smile. 

-

Next, was the sky. This was his doing. He plucked the balls of light that sprinkled their surroundings, weaving the light together to form the large star. Once finished, he placed the white orb above her ocean, the reflection from the infinite sea sparkling in the new light. 

She looked at him as he pondered his labor, his golden eyes reflecting his work. 

“Here,” she began. “Let me return the favor.” She stepped toward him, their eyes meeting. Reaching up, she repeated his action by pulling out a single golden thread from his eyes. His was made of light, but hers was a flowing liquid, supple and polished. She guided the liquid towards his star as if it was second nature, as if she hadn’t been born mere hours ago. 

The sphere lit up, splendid and golden. He marveled in its splendor, his smile worth a million suns.

-

They formed the earth together, ideas and creations multiplying by the thousands. She formed the rocks and sands that lined the land, he formed the trees and mountains that towered above. They created life together, molding the dragons and whales, the lions and humans, the mice and sparrows. They invented colors and sounds and feelings and tastes that allowed the beings to experience it; to experience life. 

But the world suffered. 

The way it was now, them side by side, encasing half the earth in perpetual day and the other in eternal night, caused an imbalance. The life they created were withering away. The animals grew exhausted and weary from his blazing light and the plants wilted and and withered in her soft glow.

“How do we fix this?” She asked him in earnest. They have been creating for a long time now (a decade at most) and this was not their first obstacle, yet it was the most difficult to solve. 

“I do not know,” he answered plainly, his long hair shaking with his his head as he shook it. “How are we to achieve balance when were are opposites?”

She nodded at this, contemplating a solution. Everything they fashioned had been born with the goal of balance and prosperity. Where a mountain would appear, so then a valley would be added somewhere else. But he was no mountain and she was no valley, and they could not integrate as one to a achieve any sort of middle. 

They stood in the sky, shoulders brushing against each other, the line that separated light from dark running through their middle. It was a sharp line, clean and precise. If there was a way to soften the line, create a duality where both night and day can prosper together… 

“We must separate,” She realized, her face falling. The soft glow of her dark skin flickered slightly.

His head whipped to her in surprise. “What?” 

“We must keep the balance of what we created. While we stand here together, each side suffers from either the lack of your light or mine. The beings must experience both our gifts to prosper.”

“No,” he said. “There must be another way.” 

“What other way? What else can we do? Will we watch death speed forward at an unnatural pace? Will we watch the gift we gave them sit stoic and broken?”

They held each other's gaze, trying to stuff a million words in their expressions. His golden eyes flickered, and light began to leak from them like stars. He looked away, ashamed of his ignorance and emotion. 

“I see,” he said at last. He knew it must be this way. He knew none of the world they made nor the creatures they breathed into existence would survive without her plan. 

She knew what this was. She saw it in the lives of the beings they made. When the lioness brings home dinner; when the birds flaunt their feathers; when the fish circle each other in an eternal dance. It is when humans, after aching in their hearts, demand relief and finally embrace. She knew what this was. 

She cupped his face, her hand brushing against his lips. The light still flowed from his eyes, twinkling as they floated away. 

“What will I do? You are all I’ve ever known.”

“Oh, my Agni,” she breathed in the words of the humans. _My fire._

“I will be here in the waves. I will be in the blue of the sky. I will be in the pull of the tides, the valleys of rivers. I will be everywhere.”

“But you will not be with me.”

Waterfalls cascaded from her eyes to the earth below them. “No.”

The hand that touched his face fell away. It was his turn now. He lifted her chin with his fingers, mimicking the human’s affections. The moment their lips touched, a thousand suns, a thousand planets, a thousand gods poured from its conception. 

-

_Tell me the story of how the sun loved the moon so much he died every night just to let her breathe._


End file.
